Superfast networking gear maker Arista files to go public

It’s about time. On Monday Arista, the company behind a generation of superfast and scalable networking gear, filed to raise up to $200 million via an initial public offering. For Arista’s history and goals check out Om Malik’s epic profile on the company. Unfortunately, as software defined networking has exploded, Arista had been caught with a proprietary operating system that ran counter to the trends we’re seeing with open source code and merchant silicon boxes. Yet, Arista had sales of $361.2 million — up 87 percent from 2012 — and net income of $42.5 million, about double from the year before. Not too shabby compared to many tech IPO hopefuls that are all revenue and no profits.